The Rams have gone a paltry 5-27 in their last two seasons. At some point something has to give. The Rams have far too much talent to have won five games in only two years. Admittedly, they've been stung hard by the injury bug, and they've held onto players they should have parted with a year too long (Orlando Pace), but the coaching has been absolutely atrocious. Scott Linehan made enemies out of his star players, which was probably the straw that broke the camels back. Besides Linehan's poor personnel decisions and mediocre game day calls, he lost the locker room.
Someone's going to have to instill some confidence in Marc Bulger, because all of last season it seemed like he played without much confidence or without any real flare to his game. Rams GM Billy Devaney said earlier this month that it's no secret Steven Jackson is their best weapon, and that they want to build the offense around him. So far, this isn't looking like a smokescreen. The Rams have added fullback Mike Karney and stud center Jason Brown. The Rams could move to a ball control offense.
On the other side, the Rams don't lack talent on defense, but they lack good coaching, experience, and depth. They've got some good young defensive linemen in Chris Long and Adam Carriker, but the linebacking corp. is stretched pretty thin. The secondary has some bright spots, but also needs some work.
St. Louis Rams Team Needs (In Order of Importance):
LT
MLB
NT
WR
LDE
OG
CB
QB
That list was longer, but as earlier noted, the Rams have done a good job filling needs by signing Jason Brown and Mike Karney, as well as re-signing Ronald Bartell Jr. The Rams are putting up a smokescreen around their pick however. They are trying to maintain a sense of flexibility by claiming Alex Barron, their struggling RT will move over to the blind side and that struggling left guard Jacob Bell will move and become an undersized right tackle.
It's not exactly a great idea. Bell just needs a great center next to him, which he's going to get with Brown. This can allow St. Louis to figure out what to do with John Greco and Alex Barron. Barron may very well be done, and it's a testament to their lack of talent that he's been starting this long.
So now, the Lions decide to copy what Miami did, and take a left tackle to start things off. St. Louis now has Matthew Stafford falling right into their laps. What do they do?
1. Matthew Stafford, QB, Georgia
2. Jason Smith, LT, Baylor
3. B.J. Raji, DT, Boston College
4. Aaron Curry, LB, Wake Forest
5. Michael Crabtree, WR, Texas Tech
6. Mark Sanchez, QB, USC
Once again we have six players to consider. Instead of Eugene Monroe we see Michael Crabtree on this list. St. Louis and Detroit have a lot of similar needs, which is after all how a team winds up being consistently bad year in and year out.
So while Stafford is going to have the most value to a franchise, seeing as he is considered a franchise quarterback, the Rams will have to take a good long look at him. Then they'll come to their senses and realize that they have way too much money tied up in Marc Bulger to justify giving 75-80 million to a rookie QB.
Then we remember that St. Louis wants to become a run oriented team. That somewhat diminishes the value of a quarterback, and it all comes back to the dollars and cents, so why would St. Louis want to spend the money on Stafford?
We move on down the list and see a great choice in Jason Smith. As noted earlier, Smith is a great all-around tackle and a superb pass protector. He's a better run blocker then Eugene Monroe, but his biggest flaw is his lack of experience at the offensive tackle position (like Jason Peters, he's a converted tight end). Smith isn't necessarily raw for being so inexperienced either, he will only get better through increased reps.
B.J. Raji would be a wonderful choice here. A 4-3 NT is probably the position where Raji could do the most possible damage. In a 3-4, he'd be asked to two-gap, and while Raji could do it, it'd waste his considerable talent. In this system, a one-gapping system, he'd be asked to cause as much havoc as humanly possible like Shaun Rogers did in Detroit. Plus, putting Raji on a line with Carriker and Long could be really dangerous. Even the aged Leonard Little still has it in him when he's healthy. Raji would make sense for new coach Steve Spagnuolo as he wants to have a lot of versatility on his defensive line.
Aaron Curry is another pick that would fit well for St. Louis. He is the safest player in the draft and fills a team need at strong-side linebacker. There's only one problem here, the Spagnuolo front has a tendency to devalue linebackers, so St. Louis taking one 2nd overall wouldn't be extremely useful.
Michael Crabtree would have been a more legitimate possibility if he hadn't had such a poor off-season. Injuries and workouts aside, Crabtree measured in at only 6'1'', and it's quite clear he's more of an Anquan Boldin then a Calvin Johnson. As good as Anquan Boldin was, he's not 2nd overall good. And with St. Louis putting their emphasis on the run, what's the point?
Mark Sanchez is included out of courtesy since he would be looked at for the same reasons as Matthew Stafford. Again their have been some rumors about St. Louis potentially coveting Sanchez over Stafford, but there's nothing guaranteed in the pre-draft rumors.
So what's the deal?
Jason Smith vs. B.J. Raji
Basically it's going to come down to desperation vs. philosophy, and the important of Steven Jackson vs. the Rams defensive line.
On the one hand, the Rams are desperate for a left tackle. They know that they can probably squeeze together a decent interior line with Jacob Bell, Jason Brown, and Richie Incognito/John Greco. However, Alex Barron has been a disaster with his inconsistent, penalty-ridden play. The Rams have got to find a replacement for him. This class is definitely tackle heavy, but none of them truly match up with the big four. Taking Smith would be a huge benefit to St. Louis' supposed "number one weapon" Steven Jackson. They've already committed to the running game by adding a top center and fullback.
Then there's philosophy. Spagnuolo can recreate what he had with the Giants defensive line by adding as many playmakers as possible, and Raji is most definitely a playmaker. Not only is he a playmaker, but defenses will struggle to handle a defensive line that has a bunch of players that you can't double team. The obvious key is Raji though, he'll elevate the play of Chris Long and Adam Carriker, the Rams last two first round picks.
So here's what it comes down to. Conventional wisdom would say the head coach is going to want his versatile defensive line, and when you consider the depth of the offensive tackle class, you'd think go take B.J. Raji and have one of the most dominant young defensive lines in football.
But Jason Smith is the pick here. The Rams know that they have no shot at winning if they don't have solid offensive line play, and Smith has shown he's a very quick learner. Smith-Bell-Brown-Incognito-Greco/Barron just need to gel.
With the 2nd overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft the St. Louis Rams select Jason Smith, offensive tackle, from Baylor.
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